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Born in Kiev, then part of the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (now in Ukraine), Perelman was an only child who lived with his extended family in a communal flat. He is from a Jewish background. When he was only nine years old, his father was killed in a car accident. Five years later, Perelman and his mother were granted permission to leave Kiev and arrived in Western Europe. They lived in Vienna for two months then moved to Rome, where they lived in extreme poverty.[1]

Remembering that period, Perelman likens himself to the kids in Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados — a street urchin "always searching for a hunk of bread or a scam to pull." He supported himself and his young mother in this fashion for a year. When a Canadian visa finally came, they left for that country where Perelman would ultimately build a new life and start his career.

Following some rather tumultuous teenage years, Perelman finally began to concentrate on his formal education.[2] He attended the University of Alberta, majoring in physics and maths, before a sophomore-year class in film-making completely changed his focus. Moving to Toronto, he studied film at Ryerson University's School of Image Arts for two years, before launching his own Toronto-based production house, called Canned Films. After honing his skills directing and editing music videos, he decided to make the move to Los Angeles to further his career.

Perelman is known for being very selective about his projects. "I don’t want to spend a year of my life working on a film that does not resonate with me on an emotional level. Since great scripts are a rare commodity, I realized that I have to create my own opportunities and not wait for the right project to come along — for fate to smile upon me."[this quote needs a citation]

With this in mind, Perelman began to option the film rights to literary works. He discovered House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III before it was an acclaimed bestseller and an Oprah selection.[3] "I closed that book after I finished it, and through the tears managed to call my agent to check into the rights." Perelman adapted the novel for the screen, and went on to attach Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly to the project, raised financing, and parked himself at the helm of his first feature film. DreamWorks acquired domestic distribution rights and released the film to great critical acclaim.